Who Am I?

Hello my name is Anthony Chirico, you can call me Tony. I am a 24 year old, college graduate. I am currently in the process of finding out who I am.

A few months before graduating the University of Connecticut, my mother called me up and told me that she was going to Vietnam in April 2018. I looked at my schedule and decided I could get away with it. I told all my professors, took a few early exams and got on the plane. As simple as that… My mother was going to pay for the plane ticket and the hotel. How could I say no?

This wasn’t the first time that I did this. A year earlier, I went to South Africa in the middle of the semester to see my girlfriend. She was doing a semester abroad down there and I was the one who talked her into South Africa so I felt I needed to go. Regardless of which, school was never really my primary focus. It was always the adventure. I love school but when I was in college grades were not my primary focus.

After I came back from Vietnam, I realized that I needed to travel longer term. The whole reason my family went there was because of Laura, my step sister, took 6 months off to travel Southeast Asia. I understood the appeal of it all. Living out of a backpack, sleeping in hostels, and drinking cheap beer. Ya baby, that’s what I am talking about.

After I graduated, I got a job with a concrete company that my mother worked. I was a laborer for about 6 months, and saved every penny. A few dollars spent in the states would equate to a couple days in Asia… I worked my ass off for months, I wanted to have enough money to last 6 months at least. 6 months in Southeast Asia… That was my goal.

Southeast Asia had its ups and downs but I loved the experience. Every single day was a new adventure. I ended up lasting a lot longer than 6 months. I traveled to eight countries in 9 months; Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, The Philippines, and Australia. My favorite experiences were motorcycling through Vietnam and Scuba diving in The Philippines. 

Scuba diving was pretty expensive so I went to Australia after I dipped into my core savings. It was a broke backpacker’s dreams. You could make a lot of money if you don’t party hard in Australia. I made close to 15 thousand dollars in about 5 months. I actually added to my savings. From Australia I went back to the United States.

I hadn’t seen my family in over a year so I decided to come back for a white Christmas in Salt Lake City. I am not much of a skier but I tore it up!!! After Skiing for a few days my brother and I drove to Colorado in a rental car. (long story there… ). We drove through the night to Moab and then to Vail. My brother Mike wanted to ski a bunch of mountains but I was not into that. I have tropical fingers, and cant stand the cold. Anything below 50 degrees is too cold for me.

I parted ways with my brother after I got sick of him and extended the car rental another week. I decided to do a little road trip. I went to Rocky Mountain National Park , Aches National Park, and Zion National Park. Zion was my favorite. The trip was pretty cool, but living in a rented Toyota Corolla and eating Ramon every night was not the the best way to travel. I experienced a lot of restless nights. I bought a blanket from a pawn shop and it didn’t do the trick. I woke up almost every three hours for 4 nights. The car would get way to cold for my tropical fingers.

I brought the car back to California and then booked a flight to Colorado. I had no car, no job and no apartment. Plan: find job, find apartment, buy car and live in the Promise Land.

I have accomplished all three at the time of writing this blurb. I am so excited to start my life here. This website will be a synopsis of different aspects of my life.